Floyd Green challenged over Acadia Drive evidence in police murder trial

Defence lawyers on Wednesday pressed Agriculture Minister Floyd Green over the reliability of his testimony in the Home Circuit Court, where six police personnel are facing trial for murder. Green remained steady while being questioned from the witness stand.

The accused are Sergeant Simroy Mott, Corporal Donovan Fullerton, and constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, Orandy Rose, and Richard Lynch. Fullerton faces an additional charge of giving a false statement to the Independent Commission of Investigations.

The matter concerns the January 12, 2013 fatal shootings of Matthew Lee, Ucliffe Dyer, and Mark Allen on Acadia Drive in St Andrew. The men were reported to have died during an exchange of gunfire with police. It was also reported that a fourth man got away and that two illegal guns were seized.

Green is among two people described as alleged eyewitnesses to parts of the incident. The minister has said he observed some of what happened from the window of his bedroom.

John Jacobs, one of the attorneys on the defence team that also includes Hugh Wildman and Althea Grant-Coppin, questioned Green about whether his account of the day was truthful.

Jacobs asked whether Green remembered telling the court that he had seen a man of Indian descent outside a blue Mitsubishi Outlander with what looked like vehicle documents in his hand. Green said that was correct.

The attorney then requested that the court registrar display an exhibit for Green and the jury. Directing Green to the area around the vehicle, Jacobs asked whether anything that looked like car papers could be seen there.

Green answered, “No,” after which Jacobs asked whether he was still saying that an Indian man had been outside the vehicle holding what appeared to be car papers.

“On the day in question, when I looked out the window, I saw an Indian man standing by the passenger side next to the car, and as I stipulated, with papers in his hand which I assumed were car papers,” Green told the court.

Jacobs then put it to Green that his evidence was untrue.

“I have been absolutely truthful to this court,” Green replied.

The defence also asked Green to identify in a photograph the location where he said he had seen a man wearing a white shirt seated on the roadway. Green indicated the rear section of the Mitsubishi Outlander and said the man had been somewhere behind the vehicle.

Jacobs then had Green examine a photograph and say whether any discolouration appeared in the general spot where he claimed the man in the white shirt had been sitting on the road behind the Outlander.

“I don’t see any discolouration,” Green said.

The lawyer next pointed Green toward a sidewalk on the left side of the vehicle, which was parked near the junction of Acadia Drive and Evans Avenue. Jacobs asked whether he could see discolouration or a red substance that looked like blood in that area.

Green answered, “Yes,” saying he saw discolouration on the sidewalk.

Jacobs suggested that the man in the white shirt had not been on the road behind the Outlander, but instead on the sidewalk to the vehicle’s left. The Outlander, the court heard, had been facing Barbican Road with both front doors fully open.

“That was not where I saw the man,” Green said.

Jacobs asked whether, given the position of the discolouration on the sidewalk, Green would accept that the vehicle would have blocked what he could see from his bedroom window on the upper floor of the apartment.

Green said nothing prevented him from seeing because the apartment was elevated.

“I am suggesting to you, Mr Green, that you are not being truthful when you say you saw the man in the white shirt in the road,” Jacobs told him.

“I am being truthful. When I saw the man with the white shirt he was in the road,” Green responded.

Jacobs then directed Green to review additional scene photographs and tell the court whether he noticed another area of discolouration on the sidewalk close to the left front passenger door.

“I do,” Green said.

The attorney asked whether that was the place where Green said he had seen the Indian man on the ground.

“The Indian man was in the vicinity of the car. He was pulled out of the car and when I saw him he was on the ground. I can’t tell you the exact place. I saw his body on the ground around here,” Green said, using a computer mouse to move a cursor to the general area of the left front passenger door.

Jacobs also questioned Green about markings he had earlier placed on exhibits, asking whether they showed the precise location where he claimed to have seen the Indian man on the ground.

Green said the mark was meant to show a general area, not an exact point.

“I can only speak to areas which I observed,” Green said.

The trial is scheduled to continue today.